Microsoft rolls out new Insider build just days ahead of Creators Update release

Why it matters to you

Microsoft’s Insider builds provide enthusiasts with a glimpse into the near future of their operating system, and with the Creators Update just around the corner, every little tweak will have a big impact on your PC.

We’re mere days away from the official release of the Windows 10 Creators Update, but that doesn’t mean Windows Insiders are left out in the cold. Today Microsoft announced yet another Insider update for users on the Fast Ring.

This update features, well, a notable lack of features. According to Microsoft, that’s on purpose. At this point, the Windows 10 development team is focused on making behind-the-scenes changes to the Creators Update, minor tweaks that make everything run a little smoother.

So what does that mean for Insiders who pick up Build 16170? Well, it means you might find some minor issues remedied, but shouldn’t expect any groundbreaking new features. Mostly, it appears Microsoft is focused on making sure OneCore is optimized for the Creators Update release later this month.

More: Looking for a new tablet? Survey shows customers prefer Microsoft Surface

That’s not to say there’s nothing in this update. There are a few minor fixes, including a tweak to Cortana’s reminder functionality, which was displaying as a share target in some apps, even if Cortana was disabled. Additionally, turning off a Night Light schedule in the settings app now turns off Night Light if it’s currently enabled.

Alongside Build 16170, Microsoft announced a long-awaited feature for the Windows Insider program as a whole: the aptly named Windows Insider Program for Business. Based on the number of IT professionals who actively use and participate in the Windows Insider program, Microsoft decided to roll out a version of the Insider program designed for its corporate Azure Active Directory customers.

More: Microsoft’s Surface Pro 5 probably won’t ditch Surface power connector

The new Business version of the Insider program provides IT professionals with the tools necessary to offer feedback to the Windows Development Team from a different perspective than typical Insider Program members.

“Windows Insider for Business participants partner with the Windows Development Team to discover and create features, infuse innovation, and plan for what’s around the bend,” Microsoft reports.

That’s about it besides a few other very minor changes and fixes, all of which are detailed in full at the Microsoft blog.

G.Skill’s new Trident Z RGB modules ramp up the speed of DDR4 memory

Why it matters to you

If you’re building a new PC using Intel’s latest chipsets, then you might want to wait for G.Skill’s latest DDR4 memory.

The next wave in PC memory, DDR5, is set to be introduced in 2018 with significantly improved performance. In the meantime, PC builders and buyers will need to settle with today’s fastest option, DDR4 RAM and, fortunately, memory makers are not standing still in terms of making that specification perform the best it can.

One example is G.Skill, which is introducing some high-capacity memory hitting some blisteringly fast clock speeds and offering up some RGB lighting for a customizable aesthetic. Specifically, the company is releasing new ultra-high capacity Trident Z RGB DDR4 memory kits utilizing 16GB modules and designed for Intel X99 and Z270 chipsets.

More: DDR5 memory specifications expected to be finalized by JEDEC association in 2018

First, Trident Z RGB modules are available in sets of eight for PCs utilizing the Z99 chipset, allowing for 64GB (8 x 8GB) and 128GB (8 x 16GB) configurations. The modules will run at DDR4-3,466MHz (CL16-18-18-38) with 8GB x 8 and at DDR4-3,333MHz (CL16-18-18-38) with 16GB x 8.

Next, performance will reach even higher levels with Intel Z270 systems, albeit with slightly lower capacity. When configured with two 16GB modules, the resulting 32GB RAM will operate at DDR4-3,866MHz (CL18-18-38).

Both sets of DDR4 modules will support G.Skill’s RGB lighting effects, with a dedicated lighting control application for complete customizability. XMP 2.0 support will also be provided for stress-free overclocking.

The following table provides a full list of the new parts and their complete specifications. The line’s frequencies will range from 2,400MHz up to 3,866MHz, in a variety of configurations providing for a wide range of capacities up to a full 128GB of very fast RAM.

G.Skill will be releasing the new Trident Z RGP memory kits in May and has not yet provided full pricing information. Each module will be covered by the company’s limited lifetime warranty to provide buyers with a sense of security to go along with the dramatic increase in performance and capacity.

Fitbit Alta HR fitness tracker review

Research Center:
Fitbit Alta HR

Not much can be said about fitness trackers that hasn’t already been written. The wrist-worn wearables record your steps, calories, and other metrics to help you to lose your love handles — or at the very least, feel less guilty about the leftover pizza you had for breakfast.

Fitbit’s the undisputed king of these trackers, shipping 5.7 million devices in the second quarter of 2016 and capturing 25 percent of the global fitness market. But even incumbents can’t afford to rest on their laurels. That’s where the Alta HR, Fitbit’s newest tracker, comes in.

Fitbit’s Alta HR improves upon last year’s Alta with sleep-tracking and heart rate-monitoring features — all in a slim, compact frame. We came away impressed by the device’s accuracy when tracking heart rate. While we wish the body was waterproof, and the display was a little easier to activate, we think the Alta HR is one of the best fitness trackers you can buy at its price point.

Compact frame, dim screen

It’s near impossible to tell the Alta HR apart from its predecessor, and that’s a good thing — both are among the thinnest, sleekest fitness trackers we’ve used.

The Alta HR boasts a stylish aluminum body with tapered symmetrical edges. On top sits a curved screen with thick black borders, and underneath is a PurePulse heart-rate sensor and three-pin charging port.

It’s one of the thinnest, sleekest fitness trackers we’ve used.

Fitbit claims Alta HR is one of the smallest wearables on the market with continuous heart-rate tracking, and that seems likely — it’s tiny. The company said it shrunk the internal tech by 25 percent to make room for the optical heart-rate monitor, and the smallest model – the unit we reviewed — measures a mere 0.61 inches (16mm) wide.

The Alta HR’s wristbands are interchangeable, with alternative options available in elastomer, leather, and metal. But unlike last year’s Alta, which used a prong closure to secure the tracker around your wrist, the HR’s band adopts an adjustable watch-like buckle that’s much easier to fasten. It’s also a lot more comfortable to wear all day — I tended to forget I was wearing it.

That being said, there’s definitely room for improvement.

The Alta HR’s monochrome OLED screen isn’t touch-sensitive — instead, tap the screen to cycle through statistics screens, call and text message notifications, and activity reminders. Unfortunately, it’s too dim to read in direct sunlight, and isn’t very responsive.

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

Sometimes, I had to tap the screen multiple times to get the Alta HR to wake up, and usually a few more times to cycle between stats. The problem is mitigated somewhat by the Fitbit companion app, which lets you specify which stat you see when you lift your wrist. But it’s frustrating nonetheless — especially during a run or workout when tapping the screen can be a quick way to glance at missed notifications.

The band isn’t as skin-conforming as we would have liked. Even at the tightest setting, we had a tough time ensuring the Alta HR’s heart-rate tracker stayed in contact with the wrist.

More: Fitbit upgrades its software with new social features and personalized workouts

Sadly, the Alta HR also isn’t waterproof. Unlike Fitbit’s Flex 2, it won’t track your laps or strokes. It’s a feature we would like to see trickle down into all fitness trackers, as sportier devices have the tendency to get into contact with water more often than other devices.

Accurate heart-rate tracking

A heart-rate sensor isn’t the Alta HR’s only headlining improvement — there are quite a few features it inherited from the pricier Charge 2. The Alta HR can track daily activity, monitor heart rate, steps, calories, distance, and can automatically recognize exercises. It can track movement and heart rate while you sleep, and can provide insight on the efficacy (or inefficacy) of your workout routine.

Fitbit pegs the accuracy of Alta HR’s heart-rate tracking to within 6 beats-per-minute, with a margin of error less than 6 percent. In our testing, it stayed well within that range.

SmartTrack automatically records walks, runs, cycling sessions, elliptical routines, and more.

Unlike the wildly inaccurate Pebble 2, the Alta HR was consistently spot on. A sedentary afternoon at the office had it hovering around the low 60s, and a sweaty session of virtual reality gaming got it to the 140s. It responded quickly to ramp-ups in activity, reporting a new BMP within a few seconds of high-intensity sessions.

Perhaps more impressive than the Alta HR’s heart-rate tracking is SmartTrack, the auto-recognition feature that Fitbit introduced last year. It automatically categorizes walks, runs, cycling sessions, elliptical routines, and broader activities like “sports” and “aerobics” after a session. In our testing, the Alta HR’s tracking had no trouble differentiating a treadmill session at the gym from a walk to my apartment. It even suggested an appropriate category — aerobics — for the aforementioned VR session.

It’s a key feature, mainly because it’s impossible to manually start a workout on the Alta HR — you have to wait until you’re done exercising and log workouts in Fitbit’s smartphone app. If most of your routines are stationary or on machines, that could get frustrating.

The Charge 2’s workout profiles aren’t available — you won’t get tracking settings for running, biking, Zumba, or intervals, for example. There’s no GPS and altimeter as well, which makes outdoor runs a little harder to track — you don’t get a route map at the end of each session, or a step-climbing metric. It’s also missing the Charge 2’s guided Relax sessions, the two- and five-minute visualizations that prompt you to breath and slow down your heart rate.

Fitbit justifies these omissions with improved software.

The Fitbit app, which has been updated to support the Alta HR’s tracking features, hasn’t changed all that much since that last time we reviewed it. The home screen shows basic stats like the number of steps you’ve taken, the distance you’ve walked, the calories you’ve burned, the minutes you’ve been active, and the number of days you’ve exercised in a given week. Scroll down a little and you’ll see your heart rate in BPM and your weight.

Fitbit makes liberal use of charts. Tapping on the Steps graphic pulls up a bar graph of activity, with a line indicating your daily goal. An Exercise tab breaks your activities into zones like “cardio” and “fat burn,” and shows the total number of calories you expended. And the Heart Rate section charts your BPM over time, and compares your cardio fitness to others in your age group.

More: Living with diabetes? Fitbit and Medtronic can help

Relatively new additions include the Challenges and Guidance tabs. The Challenges tab packs location-based activities like “Weekend Warrior” (a two-day session of high-intensity workouts), and “Jogging in NYC” (a three-mile run in Manhattan).  The Guidance tab, meanwhile, offers workouts from Fitbit’s Fitstar app.

Sleep insights

Sleep tracking is the other new feature. Two new sections, Sleep Insights and Sleep Stages, show how well you’re sleeping each night. A graph breaks your sleep into four stages — Awake, REM, Light, and Deep — and estimates how much time you’ve spent in each.

The screen is too dim to read in direct sunlight, and isn’t very responsive.

Fitbit said the Alta HR uses a combination of heart rate and movement data to determine how long you’ve in each sleep stage. During the different stages, your heart rate variability — the interval of time in between heart beats — changes, and so the Alta HR continuously records it throughout the night. The data’s plotted on a colorful graph that shows the previous night’s info, your 30-day average. and sleep stats from Fitbit users of the same age and gender.

Sleep tracking seemed accurate in our testing. During one particularly restless evening, the Alta HR recorded each hour of disrupted sleep — 2 a.m., 5 a.m., 6 a.m., and 7:30 a.m. It showed that I’d slept for a total of six hours, and 20 percent of that time was spent in Light sleep. The app said most people my age and gender spend a lot longer in that sleep stage than I did. Good to know, but what can I do with this information?

That’s where Sleep Insights come in. They’re in-app cards that give suggestions on how to improve your night’s sleep by drawing correlations between activities that might be negatively — or positively — impacting resting hours. If you sleep 20 minutes longer on the days you run four miles than on the days you don’t, for example, you’ll get a card about it.

My insights tended to be vague. The Fitbit app told me that I could set a “bedtime reminder” to help me go to bed at a consistent time, and observed that I woke up earlier than usual one morning. This feature requires quite some time to collect enough data to be useful. Pending more testing, we’ll have to give it the benefit of the doubt.

Week-long battery

Fitbit estimates the Alta HR’s battery at about a week, and that’s roughly in line with what we saw. After four days with heart-rate monitoring enabled, active sleep tracking, and brisk walks in New York, the Alta HR’s battery meter settled at 35 percent — more than enough to last a full week.

Warranty information, availability, and pricing

The warranty covers product defects up to two years from the purchase date — or you can return the Alta HR within 45 days if you’re not happy with it.

The Fitbit Alta HR is available from Fitbit.com, Amazon, Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, and other retailers for $150. It comes in blue, fuchsia, coral, black. Two special edition colors, 22k soft pink gold and gunmetal black, start at $180.

Fitbit Alta HR accessory bands come in metal ($100), leather ($60), and elastomer ($30) styles.

Fitbit Alta HR Compared To

Polar M450

Mio Fuse

Polar A360

Fitbit Surge

Razer Nabu

Epson Runsense SF-810

Garmin VivoActive

FitBit Charge HR

Withings Aura Smart Sleep System

Fitbit Charge

Fitbit One

Zackees Turn-Signal Gloves

Basis B1

Nike+ Fuelband

Nike+iPod Sport Kit

Our Take

The Fitbit Alta HR is an impressive fitness tracker at its price point. It may lack a few bells and whistles found on its pricier counterparts, but the Alta HR’s compactness, the accuracy of its heart-rate tracker, the smart activity recognition, and the robustness of its sleep tracking make up for its shortcomings.

Is there a better alternative?

Garmin’s Vivosmart HR+ and Samsung’s Gear Fit 2 are excellent alternatives that both throw in GPS for $30 more at $180, but they’re not as stylish or compact as the Alta HR. The $80 Misfit Ray and $100 Fitbit Flex 2 can record swim sessions, but they lack heart-rate monitors.

The DT Accessory Pack

Fitbit Alta Charger Dock

$15.99

Vancle Fitbit Alta Adjustable Replacement Bands

$6.80

Fitbit Alta Magnetic Clip Holder

$6.99

For folks looking to put $150 toward an activity tracker, it’ll come down to use case: If you’re a frequent swimmer, the Flex 2’s the obvious choice. If you can’t live without workout profiles, want relax sessions, and a GPS, go for the pricier Charge 2. If you want a lower-profile wearable that’ll track your sleep, record your activity, and won’t stick out like a sore thumb, the Alta HR’s the fitness tracker to buy.

How long will it last?

The Alta HR should last at least a few years if properly cared for. Fitbit is generally good about updating old products, sometimes going so far as to bring new features to older models. And accessories like bands and charging docks keep it fresh.

Should you buy it?

Yes. If you’re a casual athlete looking for a no-frills, stylish way to track your sleep and daily activity — and don’t care about GPS — the Alta HR is one of the cheapest and slimmest fitness trackers with a heart rate sensor, and benefits from Fitbit’s ever-improving ecosystem of accessories and software. Simply put, it’s one of the best everyday activity trackers we’ve tried.

China court orders Samsung to pay $11.6 million to Huawei in patent dispute

Why it matters to you

When companies battle it out in courts, they tend to have less time and resources to devote to new products.

Huawei and Samsung recently battled it out in Chinese courts when the former accused Samsung of using its intellectual property. Well folks, it looks like the court agrees — Samsung has been ordered to cough up $11.6 million in the patent case.

This is actually the first of a slew of lawsuits against Samsung in China –it was first filed in May 2016. This particular case seems to relate to the use of unlicensed 4G technologies, which have been used in a massive 30 million Samsung phones, at least according to XDA-Developers.

More: Huawei must honor patent judgment or face U.K. ban of its phones

It’s currently unclear if Samsung will pay up or if it will file a countersuit, as it has done in other suits — Samsung hasn’t announced its next steps yet, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see the case continue. For now, the ruling is a pretty big victory for Huawei.

Samsung has countersued Huawei in a series of other cases, spanning a total of six patents, arguing that it had attempted to resolve the dispute “amicably.” Originally, Huawei demanded Samsung pay a whopping $12.7 billion in compensation.

Patent disputes are pretty common in the smartphone world, and Huawei, Samsung, Apple, and other companies have been in and out of courts regularly over the past few years. In China, the disputes are even trickier.

“In general, it is tougher for foreign brands to operate in China given the many rules and regulations that they have to abide to that China sets for them.” said IDC analyst Xiaohan Tay in a CNET report.

Huawei isn’t only getting good news. The company was recently warned by the U.K. High Court to pay a global licensing fee for patents filed by U.S. company Unwired Planet, or face a sales ban in the U.K.

The nature-inspired Smartflower is a smart solar panel that follows the sunlight

Why it matters to you

Finding efficient ways to take advantage of renewable resources is key to a green future, and Smartflower opens up some intriguing new possibilities.

When it comes to soaking up the sun, don’t look to your over-tanned neighbor for pointers — look to your backyard autotrophs instead. We’re talking, of course, about plants, those cleverly engineered products of nature that understand better than just about anything the importance of solar power. So of course, it comes as little surprise that the latest solution for sustainable energy comes in the form of a giant sunflower … or rather, a solar panel that looks like a giant sunflower. Meet Smartflower, described as “a fully integrated, plug-and-play solar system that powers your world with clean energy.”

Not only does the Smartflower look an awful lot like overgrown flora, it behaves that way, too. You see, Smartflower does what natural flowers already know to do — follow the sun. At sunrise, this next generation solar panel unfolds itself, and sets its “petals” at a 90-degree angle in order to capture and produce energy. As the sun moves across the sky, the Smartflower adjusts itself accordingly until the sun finally sets, at which point the panel puts itself to sleep, folding back into itself. Similarly, if environmental conditions are not conducive to energy production (high winds, rain, etc.), Smartflower will protect itself and keep itself folded.

More: BioLite’s new SolarPanel and USB chargers bring portable power to campsites

The Smartflower’s ability to follow the sun’s position is thanks to its GPS-based dual axis tracking, and because it’s always situated in the most efficient position, it claims to produce 40 percent more energy than traditional solar powers. It also doesn’t hurt that the Smartflower is self-cleaning — tiny brushes go to work every time the panel unfolds itself, cleaning the petals, and thereby improving efficiency by 5 percent.

As it stands, American customers will be able to get their hands on a Smartflower in mid-April. Already, around 1,000 units have found new homes across Europe, with some powering individual homes, while others gracing public spaces like the Botanical Gardens in Madrid, and a cafe in the University of Applied Sciences Kufstein in Austria. You can learn more about the Smartflower (and how to get one yourself) here.

Weekly Rewind: Flying taxis, cheap shipping container homes, and more

A lot can happen in a week when it comes to tech. The constant onslaught of news makes it nigh impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of this week’s top 10 tech stories, from everything you need to know about AT&T’s unlimited plans to how you can watch the NFL on Amazon — it’s all here.

‘Thursday Night Football’ is coming to Amazon Prime next season

Amazon scored a deal with the NFL to stream 10 Thursday Night Football games during the upcoming season. The news, confirmed to Digital Trends via email, is a serious blow to Twitter, which secured the rights for the same coverage last season. This time, however, Amazon outbid not only Twitter, but also YouTube and Facebook. The retail giant paid a reported $50 million to take the prize — that’s $40 million more than Twitter’s payout last year.

Read the full story here.

Spotify vs. Apple Music: Which service is the streaming king?

When it comes to subscribers, the undisputed king of on-demand streaming music is Spotify. The Swedish-born service helped pioneer the current market and has tens of millions more paid users than the competition, not to mention millions more free users. But Apple Music, known for its high-level exclusive releases and full integration into Apple’s popular iOS system, is the hottest service on Spotify’s heels. Apple’s streaming service has shown impressive growth in its audience since its inception, so which is better?

Read the full story here.

Has Intel turned into a virtual reality film studio? We found out

Few companies have been as integral to bringing the future to computing for as long as Intel. Now the technology conglomerate is putting its chips where the films are, acting as a sort of “tech whisperer” to help filmmakers create in virtual reality. Does this mean Intel, and other companies that power VR films, are becoming de facto movie studios? assisting moviemakers in acheiving their look is nothing new to Intel. The company provided processing technology to Dreamworks Animation in 2008, for instance. If you thought 2009’s Monsters vs. Aliens looked cool, you can thank Intel.

Read the full story here.

Think inside the box with these tricked-out shipping container homes

Do you have an inordinate amount of shipping containers? Are you trying figure out what to do with all them? In the unlikely event that the answer to this question is “Yes,” you’ll be pleased to learn that they’re far more practical than you may have imagined. And if you answered in the negative, then good news! You can grab yourself a decent size shipping container for just over $1,500.

Read the full story here.

NASA’s retiring EO-1 satellite changed how we see Earth with these stunning photos

Last week, NASA retired one of its greats — the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite. Initially commissioned for the agency’s New Millennium Program, EO-1 proved to be the satellite that could. Its one-year mission nearly extended to 17 years. EO-1 was never meant to be such a star. In fact, its original purpose was to test and refine technologies for future Earth imaging. It was launched on November 21, 2000 with 13 new technologies, three of which had never been tested. Many of the most stunning images were capture by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI).

Read the full story here.

Weekly Rewind: Flying taxis, cheap shipping container homes, and more

A lot can happen in a week when it comes to tech. The constant onslaught of news makes it nigh impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of this week’s top 10 tech stories, from everything you need to know about AT&T’s unlimited plans to how you can watch the NFL on Amazon — it’s all here.

‘Thursday Night Football’ is coming to Amazon Prime next season

Amazon scored a deal with the NFL to stream 10 Thursday Night Football games during the upcoming season. The news, confirmed to Digital Trends via email, is a serious blow to Twitter, which secured the rights for the same coverage last season. This time, however, Amazon outbid not only Twitter, but also YouTube and Facebook. The retail giant paid a reported $50 million to take the prize — that’s $40 million more than Twitter’s payout last year.

Read the full story here.

Spotify vs. Apple Music: Which service is the streaming king?

When it comes to subscribers, the undisputed king of on-demand streaming music is Spotify. The Swedish-born service helped pioneer the current market and has tens of millions more paid users than the competition, not to mention millions more free users. But Apple Music, known for its high-level exclusive releases and full integration into Apple’s popular iOS system, is the hottest service on Spotify’s heels. Apple’s streaming service has shown impressive growth in its audience since its inception, so which is better?

Read the full story here.

Has Intel turned into a virtual reality film studio? We found out

Few companies have been as integral to bringing the future to computing for as long as Intel. Now the technology conglomerate is putting its chips where the films are, acting as a sort of “tech whisperer” to help filmmakers create in virtual reality. Does this mean Intel, and other companies that power VR films, are becoming de facto movie studios? assisting moviemakers in acheiving their look is nothing new to Intel. The company provided processing technology to Dreamworks Animation in 2008, for instance. If you thought 2009’s Monsters vs. Aliens looked cool, you can thank Intel.

Read the full story here.

Think inside the box with these tricked-out shipping container homes

Do you have an inordinate amount of shipping containers? Are you trying figure out what to do with all them? In the unlikely event that the answer to this question is “Yes,” you’ll be pleased to learn that they’re far more practical than you may have imagined. And if you answered in the negative, then good news! You can grab yourself a decent size shipping container for just over $1,500.

Read the full story here.

NASA’s retiring EO-1 satellite changed how we see Earth with these stunning photos

Last week, NASA retired one of its greats — the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite. Initially commissioned for the agency’s New Millennium Program, EO-1 proved to be the satellite that could. Its one-year mission nearly extended to 17 years. EO-1 was never meant to be such a star. In fact, its original purpose was to test and refine technologies for future Earth imaging. It was launched on November 21, 2000 with 13 new technologies, three of which had never been tested. Many of the most stunning images were capture by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI).

Read the full story here.

Trials for driverless shuttles currently being held in London

Why it matters to you

Self-driving public transport may not be ubiquitous just yet, but this trial run in the U.K. capital offers a preview of what we’ll be able to expect.

We may not yet be at the point where driverless cars become a standard fixture on our roads, but a pilot scheme (or should that be “pilotless scheme?”) in the U.K. shows that we’re getting closer by the day.

A trial of autonomous public transport is currently taking place in London’s Greenwich Peninsula, with seven prototype shuttles — each designed to carry four passengers — ferrying select members of the public as part of the city’s GATEway (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment) research project.

“What we’ve introduced are our driverless pods, going up and down the Greenwich Peninsula,” Dr. Graeme Smith, CEO of Oxbotica, the company which developed the vehicles, told Digital Trends. “An early version of these pods has been in operation at Heathrow Airport for two or three years. They’re totally driverless, but at Heathrow they run on a special modified railway track. What we’ve done for the GATEway Project is to add sensors and a lot of clever AI software that lets them run in lots of different places, such as regular cycle paths or roads.”

More: The latest player in the self-driving car game? Oxford University’s Oxobotica

Along with the technological research aspect of the test, part of the trial is to show how driverless vehicles might work as zero emission, low noise transport for residents; maybe even one day as an alternative for cars or buses.

“We’ve got a list of about 5,000 people who have signed up to experience the pods,” Smith continued. “We’re letting them have a test ride, and before we’ve done that we ask them about their preconceptions about driverless cars. Then after they’ve had some real-world experience, we ask them again and see if their views have changed.”

The pods are described as the world’s first fully automated shuttle vehicles, although for the trial a trained staff member is on hand at all times to stop them if necessary. The trial will run for the next three weeks.

Similar to other self-driving car projects, the pods use technologies like cameras and lasers to locate themselves on a map, perceive and track dynamic obstacles around them, and plan a safe trajectory to their destination. Over an eight-hour period of operation, one vehicle alone collects four terabytes of data — which is roughly equivalent to 2,000 hours of film, or 1.2 million photographs.

Other driverless vehicle tests will take place in the U.K. later this year.

Google’s Chief Game Designer leaves company, wants to actually design games again

Sometimes you realise it’s just time to move on.

Noah Falstein has left his post as Google’s Chief Game Designer after four years with the company, making the announcement official in a post on his blog. Falstein explains that he’s leaving because “the opportunity to actually build the big, consequential games” had “failed to materialize”.

While you might be thinking “Why would Google design games themselves?”, keep in mind the historical context at the time of Falstein’s hiring. Back in 2013, Google was still the parent company for a little game developer named Niantic, which had just released the innovative augmented reality game Ingress the year before. Falstein brings over 30 years of game development and design experience to the table — an ideal candidate if Google had set goals to foster development of new, innovative gaming initiatives from within.

But it became apparent those gaming initiatives would never come to pass. During the Alphabet restructuring of 2015, Niantic became an independent company and went on to create the wildly popular Pokemon Go, which continues to garner awards and acclaim while still pulling in over 65 million users monthly. Meanwhile, aside from one-off titles like Tilt Brush and smaller scale experimental games like Quick, Draw! and the regular Google doodle games and gaming-related April Fools’ Day easter eggs, Google does not appear to have any intentions on designing the big, consequential games that drew Falstein’s attention in the first place.

Here’s Falstein’s statement in full from April 6, 2017:

Four years ago this month I became Google’s Chief Game Designer. It seemed an auspicious time to be able to make games at a company known for its world-spanning technology. Unfortunately, the opportunity to actually build the big, consequential games that I had been hired to help create failed to materialize, even as the world market for games has continued to grow in size, diversity, and geographic reach. Accordingly, I’ve decided to leave Google, and today, April 6, was my last day.

Google is a tremendous company and I know I will miss the perks, the excitement, and most of all, my colleagues there. But with 37 years as a professional game developer, making games is in my blood. I’m not ready to give up on it, certainly not when there are exciting new fields just opening up. I’m particularly energized by the confluence of games, neuroscience, and VR. Before I came to Google I had the pleasure of working on a number of health and neuroscience game titles, and that field is now maturing, and I think about to come into its own both in terms of its benefits to humanity, and feasibility as a business. Related to that, I think the emotional connections possible in VR, most prominently shown in the empathy evoked by a sense of physical proximity and eye contact that no previous technology can match, is going to open up an entire new merging of movies, interaction, and games that may need a new name. I don’t know what’s next, and that’s part of what attracts me. The only way that I or my long-term colleagues stay fresh in an industry that is constantly changing is to evolve to meet that adapting environment.

Whether neurogaming, interactive VR films, or some other yet undreamt-of territory will be my next challenge, I’m eager to begin exploring!

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How to share your Daydream adventures on a second screen

Sharing your experiences in VR to a second screen is easy with Daydream.

Adventuring through VR with Daydream is a blast. From games that have you trying to figure out puzzles, to immersive videos that can bring you to exciting new locales. Trying to get your friends to try out VR can be pesky though, and if you have a few friends over, you might be tempted to share what you’re seeing, to a larger screen that everyone can enjoy. Thankfully this is totally doable, and we’ve got the details for you here.

Read more at VRHeads.com